An Autumn of Glass: A unique exhibition of young glassmakers from around the world as well as icons of Czech glass, the Royal Summer Palace, Prague Castle
24 September—28 October 2010

The Czech Glass Gallery in Prague, the Prague Castle Administration, and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague invite you to the exhibition ‘The Stanislav Libenský Award & Glass.Classic’. The exhibition presents graduate work by young glassmakers who are just now forming their own styles and starting out on their careers in the world of art, side by side with the works of older, renowned glassmakers — works that are already icons of Czech glassmaking.

One of those icons is Zdeněk Lhotský. In the second half of the 1980s, as the communist regime in Czechoslovakia was coming to an end, Zdeněk Lhotský (*1956) was a member of the noted Czech art group Tvrdohlaví (The Obstinate). Since then he has changed from a revolting young man to a mature artist and a capable and successful private entrepreneur. In the early 1990s, when Železnobrodské sklo glassworks closed down its centre for architectural glass, Lhotský purchased the cast sculpture studio in Pelechov near Železný Brod, where Prof. Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová had been realizing their famous glass sculptures over many years. Currently, the excellent technical facilities, know-how, ingenuity and professional approach of Lhotský’s firm have been attracting many domestic and foreign glass designers, who wish to realize their artistic intentions there. Apart from his architectural glass and largescale, mould melted sculptural bowls, Zdeněk Lhotský manufactures in his glass studio collections of utilitarian and decorative items based on his own designs. These objects demonstrate his post-modern aesthetics and a capability to develop and utilize various glass-making techniques under conditions of limited series production. These include a wide variety of small mould-melted bowls, plates fused from colourful fragments, slumped, thin-walled dishes with repeated etched animal motifs and, most recently, hot-blown vessels with delicate, meticulously painted and sandblasted decorative patterns.